"Babies", The Movie

I have just seen such a nice trailer, that I am definitely excited about watching the film. It follows the 1st year of the lives of four different babies born in four different places in the earth, (Tokyo, San Francisco, Namibia and Mongolia). It looks really interesting.

http://movies.yahoo.com/premieres/16828233/standardformat

Mosey Jones at the Baby Show

Do you still have your entrepreneurial side awake and kicking inside you after changing all the nappies, doing the washing up and juggling husband, kids and house at the end of the day? Then you would love to know that Mosey Jones is one of the guest speakers at the Baby Show.

Mosey Jones is a writer and journalist, expert in business and parenting and all the things in between. She is also the author of The Mumpreneur Diaries a book that you can hardly put down once you get engaged in the reading.

The Mumpreneur Diaries: Business, Babies or Bust - One Mother of a Year follows Mosey’s life as she juggles house, kids and her attempt of becoming a mumpreneur during her months of maternity leave. A life that some of us will actually identify with.

This is a really nice opportunity to hear directly from another mum that “has been there and done it”, if you feel inspired you might then check the book. It’s unmissable.

The Baby Show is back

The next Baby Show is getting close; from May 15 to May 17, 2009 it will take place in NEC in Birmingham.

As usual it will be packed with all sorts of information from experts on pregnancy, birth, babies and toddlers. Full of all those necessaries must-haves that all parents are looking for and for a fraction of the price that you will usually find in a retail shop.

If you are looking for the latest sling for your newborn baby, toys for your running toddler, bottles, prams... you name it, you will find it here.

For a break in your day you also have the BabyCentre Cravings Cafe where you can relax while indulging in any craving you might have whether you are pregnant or not. This is an ideal opportunity to join all the family for a day out exploring the different stands and choices of information.

The opening times:
Friday 15 - Sunday 17 May 9.30am - 5.00pm each day.

Tickets from £11.00 in advance or £13.95 on the door, kids (0-10 years) go free.
For further information or if you would like to book online visit www.thebabyshow.co.uk

Getting paid while blogging

I have run lately across numerous banner ads for Today.com so I finally took the plunge and signed up, although I got a few blogs I decided to take a new one on a subject that I feel passionate about so therefore it wouldn’t take me that much effort to update daily (that is what I am aiming for). Today.com is a well known blogging network, where you get the opportunity to blog for cash and now they are recruiting new bloggers.

If you enjoy writing or you have a hobby and spare fifteen minutes a day, this might be a good opportunity for you. This blogging network pays $1 per each post that contains at least 100 words (what you have been reading in this post is already more than 100 words). So if you post once a day you get paid $30-31 a month. It doesn’t sound like too much but so far this is the only network that I have found paying to write about ANYTHING you want. Choose a subject and blog as usual. Publish and get paid. Is that simple!

At Today.com you get paid:
-By post: $1 per each post that contains at least 100 words.
-By visitors: $2 per 1000 unique visits.

But if you want you can still make extra money in different ways:
-Referring bloggers: You get paid $5 for introducing a friend to blog for cash at Today.com.
-Bonuses of $250 are paid each month to the top promoters.
-Promote affiliate products and earn revenue from the sales.
-Sell advertisement spots on your site (by placing a link or writing a post) and share part of the revenue.

Some of their members report getting hundreds of dollars of monthly income.

Blogging at Today.com seems to be all advantages. To create an account is very easy. Apply following the link provided below (or click on the banner at the top); you will have to choose the name of the blog and the subject. Today.com will host the blog free.

It might take some days (or even weeks) for the blog to be approved as they seem to have too many applications; however mine came in a couple of days. When you receive your approval; they will send you the link to activate your account. Once activated you are done, the only thing left is start blogging!

When you start your blog they pay $2 per 1000 unique visits to your site, however once you published 30 posts over 30 individual days your blog will be promoted and you will get paid $1 per each post with at least 100 words minimum content.

At the end of the day, it doesn't seem too bad for a couple of paragraphs.
Get paid to BLOG at Today.com

Lentil burguers

Did you know that lentils are among the five healthiest foods. They are absolutely packed with iron. I just found a recipe in youtube super-yummy that I wanted to share for those with kids. Sometimes is so difficult to convince them to eat healthier choices. However, all kids love a good burguer. Well, this is the healthier alternative

What is the matter with “Twilight”?

I find myself being some kind of “weirdo” these days, when the normal thing is that everyone is going absolutely crazy for Twilight; Film, books, even shirts. I saw the film and I have to say that I really liked it, but not that I am overly “Crazy” about it.

You wouldn’t be from this planet if you didn’t hear about the love story between a human girl Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen, a vampire. This is today’s “Romeo and Juliet” although I haven’t seen the ending outcome of the four parts; I hope that is a more positive one.

I just had to rush to the post office today. My sister, who has previously seen the film ( three times already) just finished reading the first book, so she was absolutely desperate to get the other three as soon as possible and is quite difficult to get it where she is living now ( at least the original, English versions).

So much fuss about the film and the books and the amazing thing is that Stephenie Meyer (the author) is just a 30-year-old mom of three children from Arizona and TWILIGHT is her first novel. Well, definitely an awesome result!

If you have the chance you can check it out:

Cooking with your kids

The weather has been terrible today, so the option of staying at home looked more appetising than usual. Although we went out for a little while we spent most of the day inside. For those grey days we always find lots of fun things to try at home.

Most of the times, the simple act of cooking is a whole event on itself.
It never stops amazing me how much children enjoy cooking and being around the kitchen. Although supervision is a must, as long as you know they are safe it is ok, what is more if you let them get involved in the kitchen you will not have to stop fights and arguments because of them playing somewhere else.

From very little, even the smallest one, children love to be where you are and they naturally find the kitchen fascinating. I find that, when I am in the kitchen, this is one of the best places in the house to be. Everything is a learning experience the name of the vegetables, meats, how to cook them, the process, the organisation, the cleaning, they ask questions but they also experiment and while they experiment they learn. They learn about the basic things in life but sometimes the most important, they learn about organisation, for the kitchen to be a workable place everything needs to be in place and they are more than happy giving a hand washing, drying, organising, putting things away, from the smallest to the older ones.

What is more apart from all the skills that are learned, letting children in the kitchen with you has been proven to help fussy eaters, all children love to eat all that they help themselves to cook. Try it and you will find a new joy. You can also get hold of some books that will help you with some recipes easy for your kids to do, and tasks to keep them safe and busy.

The Okinawa, healthy over 100! Learn their secrets of longevity

Regarding health, this is probably one of the most exciting books I had the chance to read. The book is based on 25 years of research by Dr. Suzuki and Drs. Bradle and D. Craig Willcox. This astonishing book proves that the possibility to live over 100 healthy and free from our most common diseases is a real one not just a myth.

The people from Okinawa have been recognized as the world’s healthiest people. Okinawans live their active lives well over 100, while still exercising and working. Opposed to us, Okinawans don’t retire. Their bodies look 30 years healthier than their real age. Their secret seems to lay in a combination of different aspects, their diet, their exercise, their religious practices and their social traditions.

The research seems to prove that longevity is nothing to do with our genes. New generations of Okinawans travelling abroad and leaving their diets and healthy life style while adopting Western diets, suffer from the same diseases as their western counterparts.

Studies show that longevity doesn’t have to do with genes, but with a healthy diet and life style. As the title of the books goes… know how they do it and you can do it too.

The Okinawa Program: How the World's Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health--And How You Can Too takes you step by step through the process to change your life and adopt their healthy life style. With over more than 80 of their traditional recipes, pack with information from 25 years of research, the book will take you from where you are now to a healthier and alternative life style in four weeks. That is why it achieved The New York times Bestseller rank!

Keep Learning

Not too much of action today. As I keep learning as I go along I can’t always move forwards, instead it is something like "today I do, tomorrow I don’t". Some days I publish an article, I do research for another article or another website. Other days I just have to sit down and keep learning to be able to advance.

I have all sorts of books and reports about SEO and building your income online. And actually with children so small that they need you at every little step that they make this life is as hard as it can get. I am already knackered however I know that if I want to achieve something I can’t go to bed now, that thought only is what keeps me up every single night. Tomorrow at 6.00 am a new day starts whether I slept 4 hours or 6. As they say “if you want something, you’ve got something to give” however these days I read something like “Poor people work hard for their money, rich people make their money work hard for them” Does someone know the secret?

The Attachment Parenting Book

I just finished doing the research of a new article that will be published tomorrow. The article is about the different aspects of something I believe in; attachment parenting. For some of you that don’t know too much about attachment parenting I would recommend to read the book by Dr. Sears a pediatrician for nearly thirty years and a complete expert in attachment parenting, his advice is really respected and followed by millions around the world.

Dr. Sears supports a natural and intuitive way of parenting, attachment parenting doesn’t follow the traditional methods such as letting the baby cry to sleep and similar prescriptive patterns, it just follows a more natural approach trying to build a strong bond with your baby from birth and especially in those early years when the baby is more dependent. In this way, instead of spoiling your child, your child will grow in a more balanced way, becoming a more balanced and self-confident adult.

Attachment parenting supports practices like co-sleeping and breastfeeding, it follows a series of principles such as the practice of positive discipline versus traditional punishments and responsiveness to your baby’s needs with love and respect.

The Attachment Parenting Book provides also scientific research that explains how and why this approach works and it is more positive than the traditional one that has been followed in the western countries.

Learning and marketing

The end of another day! I promised myself I would write 2 posts today, apart from all the stuff I had to do. I have updated one website with one more article and it is still left to do some marketing for today.

I have been up and down all the day, and although I don’t believe caffeine is good for you I have been stopping myself from having too much tea, to keep me going. From 7 am in the morning I have been everywhere, gone to buy some books, gone to the post office, printing some photos, gone for shopping, cooking, washing clothes (by hand), gone to the library, done the house. Today I have dedicated every single minute I had spare to study a report I got hold of (not yet finished, by the way). I don’t consider myself an expert in Internet marketing and online business, however if I intend to leave on it, I have to learn as much as I can. So while I am active building websites, updating and doing marketing and stuff, I am also learning a lot about affiliate marketing, adsense, SEO, niche websites, keywords and everything that might have an effect on the results. Because although I am killing myself every single night until 1-2 am, it would be ridiculous to make things half way because of laziness or just pure ignorance.

So there you go, still here and now ready for some marketing, otherwise as we say...”no marketing, no visitors. No visitors, no business”

The business of being born- Ricky Lake's birth story

I just thought that anyone interested in natural parenting would be interested in this documentary.

This is a really interesting documentary. If you haven’t seen it before you shouldn’t miss it. Ricky Lake presents and is the direct protagonist of this documentary where you will see the recorded birth of her second son. The documentary talks about the business of the “birth industry” in America, the different options available and the experience of parents that have made different choices. You can check an interview with Ricky Lake about the documentary for the CW11 Channel.

The Secret to Online Success

I just recently had the chance to watch the film The Secret, although I had to struggle to see the complete movie (because of lack of time) I finally managed to finish it and I felt it was really worth it. From time to time I need some kind of positive input in my life and when you are alone all the day at home with the kids, the house chores, the shopping to do and your work online until late at night, you actually need something to pick you up, to put some motivation in your life, to renew a bit that worn out energy.

These days I am starting to think that the secret to online success might be lying in multiple streams of income and residual income (that means income that is still coming again and again for a work you have done before), at least this is what I am concentrating at lately. I keep updating my other sites and trying to find better niches. This is actually taking a lot of time in the day (or better to say “in the night” ) and then, all the marketing involved. I am wondering if I will ever get there.

Making a healthy marmalade

Here is also my recipe for a healthy sugar free orange marmalade. If you prefer you can substitute the orange by lemon. I have done both successfully with the same quantities. Just adjusting the sweetener. I like to use Splenda when I use sweetener in my recipes is the only one I have found that has the taste more similar to sugar, but doesn't affect your blood sugar levels. To me Splenda is the best alternative and it is not expensive.

Ingredients:
4 oranges
4 spoons of splenda
28gr. (1 ounce) of unflavoured gelatine
Water (as needed)

Preparation:
Wash the oranges thoroughly in water and dry them properly with a towel. Cut them in half and squeeze the juice out of each orange. Separate the skins from the pulp, seeds and rests of fruit and place all these bits in a little cloth bag or muslin bag (it is easy to make your own and keep it for cooking purposes). Cut the skin in very thin strips and put them in a pan together with the juice. Place also, the bag with the remaining bits of fruit, add more water until the orange skins are covered. Boil the water and leave the mixture simmering at low fire and covered until the skins are very soft. Remove everything leaving only the skins in the pot.

Place in a cup a bit of hot water and dissolve there the gelatine and the sweetener together. Pour the dissolved mixture on top of the skins and mix well (taste that the amount of sweetener is right). Place the marmalade in jars previously sterilised and close them tightly. Let them cool down before storing. Once cold place in the fridge or freezer.

And there you have it, your own jam and your own marmalade ready for breakfast. Without preservatives or any other artificial stuff. I feel proud that they are healthy as they don't have any sugar and inexpensive, as I usually get the cheapest fruit in the market.

Making your own jam

Sometimes when you go to the market late in the afternoon you might find good bargains of sellers that want to get rid of fruit. There is when I get lots of them for the whole week, even for longer. You can cook it and store it, pickle it or like me, make your own jams.

It is so easy, the good thing is that you know what goes on it, you know that has got plenty of fresh fruit and specially no sugar, at least I try to make the healthy version of it.

Of course, sugar is the one thing that preserves the jams so, sugar free jam wouldn't last as long as its sugary version, but still it will last a good 2 weeks in the fridge and a whole lot more in the freezer.

Here is my recipe, you will need:

3 cups of ripe strawberries
1/2 cup of concentrated apple juice
1 cup water
4 spoons of unflavoured gelatine (follow manufacturer’s instructions)
1 spoon of sweetener (optional)

Preparation:
Wash the fruit and blend it.
Boil the water in a pot, add the gelatine and move with a spoon until the gelatine is dissolved. Add the strawberries, the apple juice and the sweetener (taste before adding it and add accordingly). Leave everything at low fire for 2 minutes more. Remove and place in jars, close them tightly and allow them to cool down.

Apple juice is used usually instead of sugar, so you might find out that after using the apple juice you don't feel like using the sweetener. Or you might have really sweet teeth and find that you want actually more than is in the recipe. Well, that is the time to taste it.

End of the day

The end of another long day. I was really happy with myself yesterday, as I managed to finish another niche site. However, I feel as if things go really slowly like drop by drop.

Today, my day was completely full, I managed to write an article and take some time for marketing and networking, which I make the effort to do everyday, and that was all about it really.

It is 12 o clock in the night, and although usually at this time I am buzzing around, today I feel absolutely knackered. So I think that for once I am going to "switch off" early. As they say "Tomorrow will be another day".

Keep eating healthy in times of recession

Nowadays, every time you visit the supermarket the prices have soared in every single item. You just think “Goodness sake! I just bought this yesterday for 10p. less". However, there are still a lot of tricks you can use to still keep eating healthy and, most importantly, on budget.

1- Cook everything you can from scratch. You will save a lot instead of buying ready made meals.

2- Cook what you can by yourself. Here you can include, bread, check my recipe for easy bread, milk, check my recipe for oats milk, pizza (huge difference on price between the pizza from “wherever” to the pizza you can do with just few leftovers).

3- Go to the market at the end of the day. You will find the fruit and vegetables at knock down prices as the sellers are about to go. You can even start making your own jam of different fruits if you have bought too much (try apples, pears, not only strawberries)

4- Go to the supermarket at the end of the day. Better still “find what time your local supermarket makes the reductions”. At the end of the day products about to expire, fresh bread etc. get reduced as the supermarket will not be able to sell them on the next day. That doesn’t mean that they are off. I buy as much as I can and fill up the freezer as soon as I get home.

Well, these are just a few of my tips for times of recession, well, actually for all times. I love to be responsible with everything we got, save us much as I can and don’t waste anything, food included. I am a master of cooking with leftovers, proud to say: “In my house we never have leftovers”.

Feel free to share your own personal tips.

Making your own oat milk

As you know by now, I am up for everything and anything I can do at home by myself. Sometimes I wonder why we choose to buy certain products in the shops when we can make our own better at home. We save the journey to the shop (the distance and the time), at home it ends up being cheaper, and fresher, and also more natural, you know exactly what your recipe contains and there is no artificial colouring or big amounts of sugar, salt, saturated fats or any other dodgy stuff.

Usually we prefer to make our own milk and we try with different and healthy possibilities. Today I decided to post our recipe for oat milk, I might include other milk recipes in later posts.

In the same way as the bread, making your own oat milk is dead easy, quick and inexpensive.

Ingredients:
4 cups of cold water
2 cups of previously cooked oats
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 pinch of cinnamon

Preparation:
Place everything in a blender and mix it well until perfectly smooth. Put in the fridge to cool down. Shake well before using

Note: you can add as well 1 banana to the mixture, and/or sugar or sweetener to taste, both ingredients are optional, but you might want to try them. I would advice to try one or the other, as both together give a very sweet milk as a result.

Dr Seuss' tales

Today we had a day out going shopping and, as usual, going for some books. I like to encourage the children to read so, as long as it is reasonable, I don’t interfere. I think it is better to spend the money in books rather than in junk food or sweets.

In the end, we went for two of the most well known books by Dr. Seuss. After so many years his books still rank unfailingly the Top 20 lists on book reviews, and they will keep doing it for still years to come, that must be for a reason.

If you haven’t read it yet, you should try to get them for your little ones (even for yourself): “Green Eggs and Ham” and “The Cat in the Hat”. They are just lovely, not only the stories but also the illustrations, the rhymes and the easy vocabulary, still entertaining and fun for the little ones.

Steiner Taster classes

Although this might be with very short notice, I just didn't want to miss the opportunity, to let you know about this event.

For those of you in London (UK) that are interested in Steiner Education and would like to know more, there is the possibility to attend next Friday 6th March from 5.00-8.00 pm to a taster Steiner class at the SW London Schools "An evening in the classroom for grown-ups".

If you are interested and you would like to find out more, the details of this event and the possibility of booking are in their website:

http://www.waldorf-swlondon.org/

Marketing

Today I have spent most of my "little time available" marketing the websites.

Online everything is marketing. If you don't do the marketing, you don't get visitors. If you don't get visitors, you don't get sales. No sales, no bills paid. Well, you can imagine the rest.

It is actually time consuming and the time spent doing marketing is time that you miss from doing research and writing new articles, you can't do both things. At least, you can't if you are a full time mum and stay at home with the little ones. However it has to be done. So for today we had enough. One article written and some marketing done. As I say at this time every night "Tomorrow will be another day".

New Month

March, the start of a new month. Did someone say that working online is easy and will make you rich? Well it is not true. This is going drop by drop... eternally slow, if we are going to pay the bills like this we better start working 48 hours a day.

I have tried Google Adsense in different sites but it doesn’t seem to do too much, well it builds up little by little, until the time you can withdraw the minimum amount for a paycheque, that is $100, you can be nearly retired (well, just kidding) however, we are just checking other alternatives. Meanwhile we keep writing and updating our websites, even when the going gets tough you cannot give up.

Sun at last!

At last “some light at the end of the tunnel” nice weather back again. You feel already different when you get up in the morning and you see some sun light through the window, we are going for some walks back to the park now that the snow is gone.

Since I found the lost quinoa bags we have prepared it already a few times. One of my favourites is cooked with milk, it can be served as a dessert or as breakfast, but we have had it at home a couple of times as a dessert. Boil the quinoa in water and add milk where you have previously boiled lemon zest and cinnamon, you can serve it cold with sugar (we use Splenda a much healthier option) and sprinkled with cinnamon. It’s to die for!

Quinoa Soup

Quinoa should always be washed and rinsed before cooking. The amount is 2 cups of water, for 1 of quinoa. If you want to cook it in a similar way to the rice cover the pot and let it cook slowly in water with a pinch of salt until all the water has been absorbed. Otherwise, you can also cook it with more amount of water to make it more similar to a soup. You can also add it to salads once cook or even have it with milk and some sugar, as cereal (once cooked) for breakfast. I was thinking of including one of my recipes but I thought that some of you would enjoy a nice video.

Listen to the properties of the quinoa

I just found this great video that I wanted to share. Definitely my bags of quinoa are coming back into my diet once again.

Quinoa and its properties

It’s amazing the amount of things you forget you keep in the cupboards. I don’t usually keep things out of date, but lots of things that I forgot about.

Today cleaning the kitchen cupboards I found a couple of forgotten quinoa bags, and I mean forgotten because suddenly I realised that it was ages that we don’t cook it. But then I remember all the natural and healthy properties that quinoa contains and
I promised to myself that I will cook it before the end of this week.

Quinoa is ideal for vegetarians and vegans because of all the properties from a nutritional point of view, but not only for them, it is the ideal food for any one. This seed that is cooked in a similar way to the rice is absolutely packed with protein and contains less carbohydrate than normal cereals, it also contains all the amino acids that the body needs daily.

Quinoa is very rich in iron, but also contain good amounts of calcium, group B vitamins, Vitamin C, E, folic acid, and plenty of minerals. The seed is also rich in fibre which will keep healthy your intestines and help you prevent cardiovascular disease.

If you would like to find out a bit more about the quinoa and its properties, this is an excellent book The Art of Cooking With Quinoa: A Complete Vegetable Protein. If you have ever tried or would like to try it, then click on the image on the top, Amazon will send it for you on the post for a mere £2.85 per bag (it is not ever worth to go to the shop)

Under the (bad) Weather

What a "lucky" weather we have!, it has been snowing lately and with children you can’t go out anywhere, well at least I don’t take the risk these days to go around for a walk and end up killing myself on the slippery pavement. So I have been waiting (impatiently) until it gets better, baby doesn’t go anywhere until the temperature rises a bit.

This country sometimes makes me feel quite down, there is always that lack of natural light. However, we try to make the best of our cosy home, play together, read tales, clean, cook... (even work). I know the children need fresh air what makes me feel a bit guilty. I have been thinking lately of actually joining a swimming pool with the little ones. It is difficult when you are a mum to have time to join the gym. I do some exercise at home and I also take advantage of good walks in the park or around, with just the excuse of getting the kids out, however the swimming pool is a totally different story and I think all of us could enjoy it and benefit from it. So I will try to find out as soon as this snow disappears from our front door.

Making bread easily

When we live in a city we get use to so many commodities that you forget that the most basic things are exactly that; basic and easy.

There was a time when I used to get up flying in the morning to the corner shop just because the bread was finished (here everyone likes fresh bread or toasts for breakfast). Actually it is so dead easy to make your own fresh bread (and so cheap and healthy) that I wonder what I was thinking of on that time, instead of making my own.

Here is my own recipe, it is very basic but you can adapt it to your own needs.

Ingredients:
750 gr of stoneground wholemeal flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 sachet of fast action dried yeast
A pinch of salt
(If you like it add seeds, nuts, raisins...whatever you prefer)

I mix the flour, olive oil and yeast into a bowl where I also add some warm water. I knead altogether for around 5 minutes or a bit more and I cover it (back in the bowl) for a couple of hours. After these two hours have gone I add the salt and the seeds, we use linseed as they seem to be really healthy, then I knead it for around 5 minutes more. I give the shape of two loaves and I put them on the tray where I will cook them. I leave them to rise for a couple of hours more in a warm place. Afterwards, I just put them inside a preheated oven at 220 degrees for around 25 minutes.

This is enough for two big loaves. I usually do it in the evening and then they are fresh for next morning.

Time management

This is the end of the first month with this blog. My biggest challenge is time management, with children running up and down and the limited time to actually sit down and try to write, it seems a huge task the possibility of making a living from writing. However, every day I am becoming better at it and more organised.

I have managed to get into the habit of sitting down with a cup of tea, just a few minutes before going to bed, just to write everything I can think of for next day, even for next week. The fact of getting it in writing and out of your mind gives the relief that you can sleep and relax because TOMORROW you will deal with it. I also prioritise everything I plan to do for the next day and the rest I just leave it noted down until I find another gap in the rest of the week.

I have started a few more blogs, they don’t have yet too much traffic but I think that it is the kind of thing that takes time, for people to fall into your blog, to come to know you, to subscribe and to follow, however it is a question of perseverance.

Big thanks to the people that have used my links to join cashcrate and cashle if I can help along the way, great, the more people I can help with my experience and what I am learning the better.

Slings and their benefits

As a natural parent I have always used slings and I can actually recommend their use to anyone, the bond that creates with your baby is unique and the freedom to be out and about is something amazing. Every time I cross in the street someone struggling to get a buggy upstairs or downstairs I feel like saying: “God! Why don’t you get a sling?”

It just makes me feel really frustrated when people get in front of them at the bus stop, sometimes it makes you wonder where is that old habit of the gentleman saying “Oh madam, you first please, do you need help?” No, actually everyone kills himself to get into the bus, then when is your turn you just stay there because the bus is full or there is no more space for a buggy.

With the baby in the sling I can go in the bus, I can shop, I can cook and still do the rest of the house chores. Apart from the hands-free freedom carrying your baby in a sling has a lot of benefits:

It has been proved that babies that are carried regularly cry less, it is of special help with babies suffering from gases and colic.

The physical closeness with the mum creates a special bond, which it has also been proved to reduce stress levels and separation anxiety in newborns.

Increases baby’s emotional and mental development, also mentioned in The Continuum Concept,
baby see the world from their parents level, they become a passive spectator of the daily activities and the life around them until they are ready to become an active part in their community. Research says that this alert state is the optimum for learning and babies carried become more independent and self-confident children.

Increases baby’s physical development, usually babies that have been carried regularly learn to sit up and stand up earlier.

If the information about the benefits of carrying your baby makes you think twice, now there is not even excuse to not find a suitable carrier. The market is full of different types and styles that can suit anyone. I used the Calin Bleu for so many months until the baby grew up and was too heavy to carry, I personally think it is the best for a newborn. Once you try it, you will not want to take it out.

The advantage is that once you have used for ages, the sling can be used for the next child, given away as a gift to a new mum or sold in the market, as second hand they still keep amazingly a big part of their value, so you wouldn't have spend that much after all.

Paid Surveys: Cashle

Cashle together with Cashcrate have been the main websites that have helped me to build some money so far.

Cashle is really good, you can sign up to both like me and when you have time, you do one or another. There are always plenty of offers, so there is always the chance to make some extra cash.

The advantage of cashle is that you don’t need to build any amount, you can just withdraw it at any time no matter how small the amount is. So it is a very good incentive if you want to make money daily. That is why it is one of my favourite programs.

Another good advantage is that it is actually very similar to cashcrate, you have to pay for some offers (if you want), but if you are like me, you don’t need to, just choose the ones that are 100% free.

Cashle also offers the possibility of recommending your friends and family if you are happy. It actually pays up to $1 for any new member that signs up recommended by you and a commission of 15% on any money that your referral makes (like Cashcrate, this commission means a bonus for you, your referral doesn’t get less money paid).

Using both sites and referring friends and family you can make a good regular income, at the end of the day is money that doesn’t take that much effort to build and cash.

If you think of joining them, please consider using my referral link I really appreciate your support.

These two websites are so far the ones that I have found that are actually helping build some income, if you know of any that have been useful to you, feel free to share it with us.

Paid Surveys: Cashcrate

There are around the web some companies that provide legitimate work while others don’t. I have been searching a lot for the serious ones, if I want to build my income online I don’t have the time to waste on schemes that don’t pay enough or are not serious at all. And of course, I wouldn’t like to recommend something that would be a waste of time to other people either.

I heard a lot about Cashcrate and after doing my research I decided to join them. Cashcrate is a genuine company with lots of positive feedback. Although they are American, residents from other countries can also participate.

Cashcrate provides an easy way to build online filling up offers and signing up to websites. To sign up all you provide your e-mail and address where you want to receive your payments. In the days I have been doing their offers I found them easy to follow, you can see straight away which ones offer more or less money so you can choose accordingly and the amount builds up quite easily.

Although there are different offers, you can do like me and click only the ones that say “100% free” there are plenty of them and you don’t risk any money.

If you are happy with them you can also recommend your family and friends, they have a nice referral program in which you get 20% commission on whatever they make (this commission doesn’t mean that they take it from their earnings it’s all yours as an added bonus, while they receive theirs).

This program has helped me quite a lot lately in building some steady income.
If you would like to give it a try please consider using my referral link, I appreciate your support.

Getting paid to read E-mails

I have been searching lately on different kinds of schemes on how to earn some money online. I had my eye on some schemes I read about where you register and they send you e-mails. This schemes pay you to read the e-mails or click on links or adverts inside the e-mail. However, doing some research I gave up on the idea.

I have talked to some people with some experience on this kind of earning schemes and they all say that is painfully slow to build some income. Some can make around $0.25 a day after clicking up and down. Although you don’t have to put that much effort into it, it’s good if you don’t have anything else to do. But with children and a house to run and serious bills to pay it is just something I can’t afford.

Feel free to share with us your favourite ways to earn money online. What did you find gives you more income at the end of the month?

The Continuum Concept

I read The Continuum Concept when I was pregnant, I had read so much about it and so many people recommended it to me that I couldn’t wait until I laid my eyes on it. In this book Jean Liedloff wrote about her experiences after spending over two years living among the Yequana Indians in the Amazon jungle. What it was most shocking for her was the way that this tribe was raising their children. She noticed that yequana babies, rarely cried unless they were sick, however their upbringing was something completely different to what she was used to and recommended in our society.

The main idea behind The Continuum concept is that in order to become happy and confident adults, babies expect to have fulfilled their needs in the way nature designed for our species in the process of our evolution.

The main expectations are:

-Babies need to be carried in arms from birth until crawling age. In close contact with their mum they feel protected and they learn about life until they are ready to become active members in their circle.

-Co-sleeping with their parents until they are ready to sleep on their own.

-Breastfeeding on demand, responding to babies’ needs.

Among the Yequana, children are respected and trusted as individuals from a very young age, they follow their parents constantly in their daily activities and are allowed to learn and explore their surrounding freely. They rarely cry and, it is said, that children brought up in this way become more independent and self-confident individuals

The Continuum Concept is in its twenty-sixth printing and has been translated into sixteen languages. If you are interested in natural, instinctive parenting, then this book is a must!

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Natural Parents

We consider ourselves natural parents, we practise attachment parenting, we co-sleep, breastfeed and carry our babies in slings. At home everything is cooked from scratch and most of what we eat is done at home, including bread. We try to keep a healthy lifestyle, we go for long walks and keep fit, we do exercise, yoga and swimming. When is needed, we also try to help our bodies in their recovery through natural remedies, homeopathy, rest and a proper diet, resorting to traditional medicine (NHS) only when there is no other alternative.

In our family every single member is respected and valued just for being that important component of the family. We are going back to basics. We try to keep our family as close to nature as possible.

Our ultimate goal is being able to move to a more peaceful environment where our children can grow more in contact with nature, wrapped by the warmth of our extended family and spending as much time as possible with us. Our plan is to be able to build a regular income online that would allow us to give that big step.

This diary will narrate our journey as a family, our attempts to build our income online, what works and what not, our daily life, books that we read, information that we find interesting, things that we value, recipes and a bit of everything. All small pieces that fill our lives and make us what we are.

We would love your company, your contribution, and your suggestions. Do share our journey. Let’s go back to basics.

Header Photo Credit

Photo Credit: michelleannb

We couldn't find a place in the header to include a link with a credit to the photographer, so we decided to include it here.

The header photo we are presently using in this blog is by michelleannb. You can check this and more photos of this great photographer following the link provided.